Of the Anna Temkina and you can Lilit Zakaryan, Company of one’s Sociology from Personal Health and Sex, Eu University on St.Petersburg, Russia and you may Federal Academy from Sciences, Armenia
Karmir khndzor (Armenia)
Review the woman’s love – because of analysis the girl virginity – to affirm honor and you can standing of this lady members of the family exists from inside the a range of ‘layer ceremonies’ for the patriarchal societies on Mediterranean cultures in order to Latin American peasantry and you will Indian castes, as Dark ages (Kandiyoti 1988, Carpenter 2005, Ortner 1978: 19). Parallels can be found with the habit of blaga rakija when you look at the Macedonia. People virginity is associated with the public esteem because the good woman’s status from the social build is placed by just how ‘pure’ otherwise ‘polluting’ she’s (Ortner 1978: 24-26). That it trust could have been ‘enforced by the logical and frequently slightly really serious power over ladies personal and especially intimate behaviour’ (Ortner 1978: 19). Based on Simone de Beauvoir, virginity was a patriarchal create hence objectifies ladies while the Almost every other (1949 ).
Karmir khndzor is hardly said regarding the Armenian ethnography about later 19th and you will early twentieth many years while the Armenian people try mostly hushed into the items from sexuality. Mostly men ethnographers failed to have a look at the wedding night ceremonies during the adequate detail the help of its female informants. If your bride-to-be are most younger, the ritual wasn’t performed towards relationships evening at all and are delay for many years (Shagoyan 2011: 497). Red oranges accustomed enjoy a different role in the regional rituals associated the loss of the bride’s virginity (Shagoyan 2011). While the a symbol of fertility with a sexual meaning, apple was used since a gift field to have gold precious jewelry, gifted into fiance. This new spherical form of the fresh fruit symbolized stability and you may perfection and new virginity of the bride-to-be is simultaneously interpreted since the the girl ‘integrity’ (tselostnost, compare to tselka, ‘virgin’).
The current kind of karmir khndzor that’s used while in the Armenia and in several diasporic communities shot to popularity throughout the Soviet period towards improve of metropolitan migration on 1970s. This new ritual comes with the adopting the regulations: Into day pursuing the wedding, a little gang of females (new couple’s godmother otherwise groom’s mommy, maternal sister otherwise partnered sibling), always 2 or Las Cruces escort girls 3, give the caretaker off fiance a rack away from apples, chocolate and you can cognac. The new groom’s mom encourages her neighbors or personal family members, again several lady, more getting java, teas, chocolate and fresh fruit. Brand new godmother slices the new oranges for the five pieces and you may shares him or her into the travelers. Cakes as an apple are also the right gift. Brand new routine boasts around three tips: test, sanctioning and you may validation. Pursuing the groom’s mommy or other girls choose lines out-of blood into the bedsheet of bridal few (examination), the new bride-to-be gets something special in case of the girl affirmed virginity otherwise a conviction and you can censure in the eventuality of failure (sanctioning). Throughout the third step, a red-colored apple otherwise a dish that have oranges is distributed because the recognition towards the bride’s mother, which awaits so it signal with family otherwise neighbours during the her home (Shagoyan 2011, Pogosyan 2010).
Profession search used from the mid-2000s revealed that karmir khndzor is performed really rigorously and you may faithfully inside rural places that sex norms was indeed more conventional and you will hierarchical. Regarding metropolises, the newest behavior got a far more modest function – brand new ritual is actually did but the virginity investigations is way more lenient (Temkina 2008, 2010). Several change has aided change the newest habit just like the 2000s (Temkina 2008, 2010, Pogosyan 2011). Basic, the new ritual has been articulated on the personal commentary because of the media, NGOs while the ladies course, and also in instructional discourse, educational programs and you can university programmes toward gender, sociology, therapy and you will equivalent procedures. Virginity was politicised shortly after numerous NGOs (Wo-men’s room Capital Cardiovascular system out of Armenia, UTOPIANA, WOW) prepared shows geared towards deconstructing the ritual having headings for example ‘Red Fruit is only to own eating’ and ‘I ask you to brand new funeral of your own Reddish Apple for the 8 away from .’ It has influenced the new effect of karmir khndzor because of the young years exactly who turned into very likely to see it because an old-fashioned habit of intimacy handle. Next, they turned possible to produce virginity. Women who had premarital matchmaking you can expect to replicate its virginity due to their husbands and you will/or moms and dads-in law by the in the process of a health hymenoplastic procedure to help you reconstruct this new hymen and you will show the cultural purity and you will honourable femininity. By medicalising the newest karmir khndzor routine, gynecologists may help women to construct a frequent bio in order to improve their existence odds getting a consistent elizabeth much more well-known to own lovers to will not participate in new routine or so you can ‘save’ the new women’s virginity. As sexual matchmaking turned into a great deal more liberal and you can thought to be owned by an autonomous industries out-of personal lifetime, karmir khndzor was relegated to a beneficial ceremonial and cultural icon when you look at the the brand new federal relationship and has now lost the partnership in order to virginity, for example is the case out of a married relationship veil during the Russia.
Karmir khndzor try trapped in the stress anywhere between national label and you may modernity. Given that routine means Armenian community and traditional intercourse jobs, people that refuse brand new routine risk getting regarded as lower than right Armenian people and you can females. Yet those who rigidly stick to the routine could be seen as backward and you can conservative because of the the rivals. However, pro- and you will fraud- perceptions so you can karmir khndzor work better thought of as being located on a spectrum. Both men and you can girls can get target on the virginity try becoming an apparatus of control of its intimacy and personal lifestyle. Other times, women may prefer to remain its virginity ahead of wedding and consider it an essential cultural society that fosters kinship solidarity. Particular can get invest in keep their virginity, however, hate its personal verification adopting the marriage. Of a lot young people check low-marital sex since the appropriate for both males and females and you can thought karmir khndzor wholly archaic. Given that patriarchal sex program forgotten its rigidness, the variety of positions about the habit imply deficiencies in any societal opinion concerning routine (look for detail by detail scenarios having creating the newest ritual inside Pogosyan 2010).
Records
Poghosyan, An effective. 2010. Some of the top features of the transformation of your society “Red apple”: Lifestyle and you will Modernity when you look at the Armenian Culture, Yerevan: Gitutyuan, 359-367
Shagoyan, Grams. 2011. ‘” Seven days, 7 nights”: Opinions of your Armenian relationship, Institute away from Archaeology and you can Ethnography of National Academy off Sciences, RA, 496-509